


SotBH: Trouble Maker

by LeoArcana



Series: Prompts [20]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha Castiel, M/M, Omega Dean, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 08:40:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8137580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeoArcana/pseuds/LeoArcana
Summary: Everyone warned them of ‘terrible twos’, lightly saying that’s when Holly would make up for the past two years of good behavior.  But she was perfectly fine as a two year old, just as much of an angel as she had been.  At that, a few people joked that it was actually ‘terrible threes’, but once again, Holly was still well-behaved.  However, no one had said anything about four.





	

Everyone warned them of ‘terrible twos’, lightly saying that’s when Holly would make up for the past two years of good behavior.  But she was perfectly fine as a two year old, just as much of an angel as she had been.  At that, a few people joked that it was actually ‘terrible threes’, but once again, Holly was still well-behaved.  However, no one had said anything about four.

“You need to discipline her, Dean,” Castiel stated.

“Why does it have to be me?” Dean snipped, “It’s your tutor she has a problem with.”

“Are you saying she never misbehaves with you?”

“Not once,” Dean replied smugly.

When Holly had turned four, Castiel had suggested she start going to school.  It was the normal age for children in Enoch to start going.  However, Dean had disagreed.  Children in Pangea didn’t start school until they were eight.  At least, for structured schooling.  Up to the age of eight, children often went out with family to explore their world and learn about everything around them.  Despite having moved to Enoch at a young age, both Dean and Sam had been raised that way by their parents and showed no ill for it when they joined school.

Dean and Castiel had argued about it for several nights before reaching a compromise.  Holly would spend two days with a private tutor, the same who had taught Castiel, and two days out with Dean.  The other three days would be free days, though Castiel suspected these days were almost exactly how her days with Dean went.

The compromise worked for a few weeks, until Holly decided that Dean’s method of ‘teaching’ was far more fun than sitting in the library.  She started out simple enough, just not paying attention or doodling while the tutor spoke.  The tutor had politely tried reprimanding her for it and she responded by taking things a step further by making faces and imitating him.  Another reprimand, more defiance.

The tutor had managed to find Castiel one day and ask him to speak to his daughter about her behavior.  He did, though it apparently had little effect.  When the tutor approached Castiel again, it was because she’d simply decided to get up and wander around the library.  Castiel tried to reason with Holly and explain to her that she needed to sit down and listen, but once again it had little effect and the problem continued to escalate.  She would run off during lessons to different places; sometimes the courtyard, sometimes the kitchen or grand hall or storage rooms.  On several occasions, the tutor had barely managed to catch her before she left the castle altogether. 

On other occasions, it was either Dean or Castiel who happened to catch her before she left castle grounds.  Castiel would send her back with the tutor, strictly telling her to behave.  Dean would either decide she was done for the day or would join in on her lessons; at which point she would behave better.

Most recently, however, Holly had gotten into the kitchen and toppled a tier of pastries, broken a bookshelf in the library, and had been found drawing on a wall.

“Have you ever disciplined her?” Castiel asked.

There was no accusation in his voice, he’d just been stricken by the thought.

“I’ve never needed to,” Dean shrugged, “At least, not more than telling her to wait for me.”

“Well, perhaps you should do it.”

“Why?”

“She doesn’t listen to me and she doesn’t listen to the tutor.”

“Well, maybe she doesn’t need a tutor yet.  She’s _four._ ”

“We’ve already had this discussion and we are not having it again,” Castiel stated, “Two days of proper teaching isn’t that bad.”

Dean rolled his eyes with a sigh and Castiel narrowed his.

“If you won’t do it, then she can spend more time with the tutor.”

“Because that’ll work out great,” Dean sneered.

“Then talk to her.”

Dean scrubbed his hands down his face.

“Why don’t you talk to her and I’ll just back you up?” Dean suggested, “United front and all that.”

“If she would listen to me in the first place, I would agree to that,” Castiel said, “But being that nothing I say sticks, you’re talking to her.”

“Fine,” Dean groaned.

Dean turned and pushed the door of their room open with his shoulder, rolling his eyes one more time before squaring up.

Holly perked up at the sound of the door opening and looked over her shoulder.  As soon as she saw Dean, she scooted to the edge of the bed, hoped down and bounded over to him.

“Papa!” Holly smiled.

She ran into Dean, throwing her arms around his hips.

“Hey, Pumpkin,” Dean smiled.

He lifted his hand to rustle her hair and Holly scrunched up her face and batted his hand away.  She never like having her hair messed with, but she made such a cute face when it happened.  Which is part of why Dean did it.  Holly stepped back and tried to fix her hair, only to get her fingers tangled in it and give up.  When she looked up again, she saw Castiel standing a few steps behind Dean with his arms crossed and wearing the same stern expression he had when he lectured her about misbehaving.

“Am I in trouble, Papa?” Holly asked quietly.

The simple question pulled on Dean’s heart and he almost told her no.  He chewed the inside of his cheek and swallowed.

“’Fraid so, baby girl,” Dean kneeled down, “What’s this I hear about stuff gettin’ broken?”

“It was an accident, I didn’t mean to!”

Tears glassed over her eyes and lower lip quivered.  She was never in trouble with Dean, but now that she was, she was beginning to get scared.  Again, Dean was tempted to let the whole thing go.  To just wrap her up in his arms and tell her it was fine.  But a light touch on his shoulder from Castiel grounded him again.

“Why don’t you tell me what happened first?” Dean asked.

Holly drew in a ragged breath, on the verge of hiccups as tears welled up in her eyes.  Dean did his best to keep still and give her a chance to tell him, but the second the first tear slipped from her eyes, he caved.  He pulled her in, wrapping his arms tightly around her and nuzzling his face in the crook of her neck as she let loose a sob and clutched at his shirt as she buried her face.

Castiel tensed his jaw and swallowed thickly.  This was the first time he’d seen or heard Holly cry in nearly a year; the last time had been caused by a nightmare.  He flinched to kneel down and hug her as well, but Dean had risen to his feet with her in his arms and hushing her as he walked back to their bed.

He just held her, mumbling and whispering to her with tears glazing his own eyes.  It took a few minutes, but eventually Holly sat back, hiccupping and wiping her face.  Dean gingerly swiped away the tears and lifted her chin.

“You okay?” Dean asked softly.

Holly sniffed and nodded.

“You wanna tell me what happened?”

“It was an a-accident…!”

“I’m sure it was, baby.  Just tell me what happened, okay?”

Holly moaned and looked away from him.  He recaptured her face in his hand and delicately turned her face back towards him.      

“If you tell me what happened, I won’t be mad,” Dean promised, “How’d all those pastries end up on the floor?”

“They fell…”

“How’d they fall?”

“’Cuz I was tryin’ to get one on the top,” Holly admitted.

“How come?”

“I was hungry an’ Miss Naomi wouldn’t lemme have a snack.”

Dean felt a twinge of anger, but dismissed it and asked about the library bookshelf.  The tutor, Naomi, had been harping on her about a particular lesson, something to do with writing or reading, and she’d gotten up and ran off to get away from her.  She’d gone to hide amongst the bookshelves and Naomi had found her.  Naomi, having briefly lost her composure, grabbed Holly by the wrist and tried to drag her back.  Holly had latched onto a bookshelf to keep herself rooted, Naomi had pulled harder and it was the bookshelf that gave way.  One end came free from its fastenings and the other end cracked as a result as the books fell.

Dean’s lip curled; how dare this woman grab his daughter like that.

As for drawing on the wall, that had been Holly being an unsupervised toddler.  She’d gathered up her crayons and snuck off, but realized she’d forgotten paper and thought drawing on the wall would be okay.  After all, there were already paintings and pictures on them.

Dean let her ramble on in between hiccups, feeling more anger towards Naomi as she spoke, but also coming to realize how defiant Holly had actually been.  Naomi had been in the wrong in nearly all of her reactions, but it was Holly who had antagonized them from her.  Most of this was news to Dean.  Naomi had told everything to Castiel, but Castiel usually gave him shortened versions missing details; either because he was tired from a long day or because they’d honestly slipped his mind.

When Holly finished and looked up at him with puppy eyes that would put Sam to shame, Dean dropped his head and closed his eyes for a minute.  She did need to be disciplined, Dean thought.  Maybe he could get away with just a warning, but he shook his head minutely.  Castiel’s talking-tos had been her warnings and she chose not to listen.  Dean drew in a slow breath and looked at her.

“Pumpkin, do you know why Miss Naomi does all that stuff?” Dean asked slowly.

“Cuz she’s mean,” Holly pouted.

Dean barely held back a snort.  He’d met her once or twice before she’d started tutoring Holly and he’d gotten the feeling she wasn’t the nicest person.  A quick glance at Castiel showed his mate tightly holding back a little smirk.

“She is mean,” Dean agreed, “But she’s only doing it because you aren’t listening to her.”

Holly’s mouth fell open.

“If you listen to her and she’s still mean, she’ll be in trouble with me.  Lots of trouble,” Dean promised.

“But I don’t like her!”

“You still have to listen to her—“

“But why?”

“Because she’s your teacher,” Dean said, “And if you don’t start listening to her… we can’t go out and have fun.”

Now Holly looked down right hurt.  Dean bit down on his lip to keep himself from retracting the threat.

“And…because you haven’t been listening to Daddy either… We aren’t gonna do anything tomorrow.”

“That’s not fair!” Holly cried, “I’ll listen to him!  I promise, please!”

“I know you will,” Dean hushed, “But I still have to do this, sweetheart.”

He went to hug in apology, but she pushed him away.  In that moment, Castiel saw Dean’s heart shatter.  Never once had she refused her father’s embrace, she didn’t even like letting him go.  Holly turned her back on Dean, huffing and trying not to cry.  With her not looking, tears welled up and started to fall in voluntarily from Dean’s eyes.

Castiel moved his place at the door swiftly over to the bed.  He lightly wrapped his fingers around Holly’s arm and urged her off the bed.  She wrenched her arm free and jumped down, pouting at the ground.  He gave her a little pat on the back, spurring her into following his lead back towards her room, right next to their own.  He cast a worried glance over his shoulder at Dean, who hadn’t moved a muscle yet and stared at the space Holly had been sitting.

Holly huffed and crossed her arms, marching ahead of him to her room.  Putting her to bed was easy enough; she didn’t want to talk to Castiel either and made a point of hiding under the blankets with her back to him.  He still told her he loved her, kissed her goodnight and checked over his shoulder as he left to see if she dared to peek out from the blankets or say anything.  He sighed when she didn’t and went back to his and Dean’s room.

Dean sat back against the headboard with his knees drawn up and face hidden.  Castiel walked swiftly over to him, climbing on the bed beside him and gently trying to urge him to look up.

“I’m the worst parent,” Dean mumbled.

“Why would you say that?”

“She hates me now.”

“She doesn’t hate you.  She’s _four_ , remember?” Castiel half smiled.

The light comment did nothing to ease Dean’s mind.

“Dean, Holly doesn’t hate you.  She adores you, you know that.  She’s only upset because you were doing your job as a parent and that resulted in less time with you,” Castiel said, “Which isn’t even all true, we both know that.  You just won’t be wandering all over the place.”

“She doesn’t know that.”

“No, not yet,” Castiel agreed, “But she will.”

Castiel tried once more to get Dean to look up, but he refused.  Castiel hummed and ran his hand soothingly over Dean’s shoulder.

“She won’t be upset in the morning,” Castiel promised, “And you will still be a good parent.”

Dean grunted and let himself lean towards Castiel with a sigh.

“In fact, you’re a better parent than I am,” Castiel added, “Nothing I said had any impact on her.  I have a feeling she won’t misbehave again.”

“She does listen to you,” Dean mumbled, “She tells me about it… Sometimes I told her not to worry about it.”

Castiel pursed his lips and stared pointedly at the wall.

“Told you I’m a bad parent.”

“You’re not,” Castiel replied, “Perhaps don’t do that anymore.  ‘United front and all that’.”

Dean snorted and relaxed a little.  Castiel promised to work on communicating better about what Naomi said about Holly’s behavior, while Dean promised not to dismiss what Castiel said to Holly. 

Castiel continued to speak, recounting moments that proved just how much Holly loved Dean and moments were Dean excelled in parenting just to convince him that he wasn’t the awful parent he thought he was.  Every parent thought like he was thinking whenever they had to punish their children.  They stayed up talking until yawning interrupted their sentences too many times and scooted down the bed to lay down, too tired to change clothes.

Shortly after falling asleep, Dean felt the pull of the blankets.  In sleepy annoyance, he tugged them from Castiel.  The blankets pulled again and Dean was vaguely aware the pull was coming from the wrong direction.  He pushed himself up on one elbow and looked behind himself to see Holly clutching the blanket and brows drawn up with downturned, pouting lips.

“Holly, what’re you doing up?” Dean slurred.

“I’m sorry, Papa…”

“Oh, baby, come here.”

Dean sat up and hooked his hands under her arms as she started to crawl up onto the bed.  He went to let go of her, but she sniffed, “I love you.”

He could feel warm tears spreading over the shoulder of his shirt.  Despite his daughter crying, his heart swelled with relief.  Castiel was right, she didn’t hate him.

**Author's Note:**

> Holly could never hate Dean, she's a daddy's girl.  
> prompt:Well shit, if you're taking bathhouse prompts I'm always up for more of that. I'd like to see how cas handles being a father to an older Holly. Who's the bad guy when she disobeys and wrecks havoc? **[want a prompt?](http://leo-arcana.tumblr.com/ask)**


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